What’s Happening With Fiona – Part Deux

What’s Happening With Fiona – Part Deux

You all are so patient. I just beat the hell out of you guys and you stay with me.

That started like me saying I was going to delay Fiona further.

Not the case. But bear with me while I ladysplain.

Yesterday, a blogging pair emailed me to let me know they couldn't find Kick on Amazon. Weird, since it's been on there since June 2014 and the only change I made was making it 99c on Sunday.

It showed up for me fine, but I went to salesrankexpress.com and checked anyway.

Guess what? The books have been flagged as ADULT.

Forgive the resolution. If you want to see how it works, click the pic and you'll go to the salesrankexpress page.

For those of you who don't know, I'll spend this paragraph explaining what that means. (if you know about ADULT tags already, you can skim-n-skip)

ADULT means the titles are suppressed. So they won't show up in also-boughts, recommendations, or in searches for people who haven't visited the pages before. There will be a little link on top that says “show hidden titles,” and if you click it, the book will come up now and forever. But no one's looking for a damned link at the top and even then, it doesn't matter. See next paragraph.

The upshot was I started pimping a 99c sale on Monday and sold 30 books. That's ridonkulous. Truly, it is about what I sell with direct pimp links. But the real sales are in the increased visibility those 30 buys creates. So there should have been something like 120 or more sales.

I was upset for exactly three minutes. Then I thought this might be my own fault. The covers are very, very kinky. She's in shadow but she's naked, and she's in a suspension.

What was I thinking? I dunno. But if you like the cover, the paperbacks will keep these covers until I get bored of them or another issue arises.

Earth to Christine. Do you want your kids to randomly search things and find this on their results? No, you do not. And it's not like I started writing erotica yesterday. It's not like I haven't seen this happen to people before.

I know how to fix it. Change cover and blurb, then grovel. Because of the holiday it would take a week or more to get it done. It may never get fixed. One book might get fixed and not the other. And releasing Break on Dec 1st was going to be a wasted effort if no one could see the first two books….but the most likely scenario was that Break was going to get flagged with the rest.

I think doing this for five years already makes me relaxed about the possibility that the last book in a series, a long book I tortured myself over, might sink like a stone and never be heard from again. It won't be the first or last. Having resigned myself to the worst case scenario, I got to work.

I tossed around a lot of possibilities, and discussed a germ of an idea with a dear writer friend. We came up with not just a solution, but a way to breathe new life into the series, get the book out in time, find new readers, satisfy fans and put a safe cover on it.

Two steps.

Break will be released on iBooks, Nook, Kobo and Google as soon as I get it back from my formatter. It will have the bondage cover and be 2.99.

On Dec 1st, a standalone called Forbidden will be released on Amazon KU, with a limited time 2.99 sale price. It will contain Kick, Use, and Break marketed as a single story, not a bundle. If you want to get it on Amazon, just get the standalone and there will be a link to Break.

In order to honor the Kindle Unlimited contract, Break will be removed from all other venues as soon as I upload. All the above are pretty quick to pull (as long as I go Kobo direct).

I've already removed Kick and Use from the other venues. They didn't sell anyway. I sold 3 Kick a week on iBooks and Nook. That's not a loss. If you missed them, I'm sorry, but they've been there a long time. I'd check iBooks. I think they're still there for now.

I'm not going to make any big statements about what I love and hate about KU. I don't even care about my own crankiness with it. What I care about is reaching people, sharing my ideas, and showing off my metaphors. Also money. I care about money. I know it's aggravating to people who use other platforms. Fuck Amazon for innovating the page count thing and making it profitable to do full-length books.

An Apple rep told me he thought exclusivity was bad for consumers. He may be right. But as far as I'm concerned, Apple's going to have to figure out how to lure me and a few hundred thousand readers back. I look forward to it.

If you use other platforms, I STRONGLY suggest you get on this email list and make sure you put me in your contacts (xtine@flipcitybooks.com) so I can tell you when I upload Break.

Also, though I have no intention of putting any frontlist in KU going forward, I don't know what the future holds. Get on the mailing list so if I put something up on other platforms for a limited time, you can grab it.

I'm going to blast a big email anyway. You can get on that list by clicking “CD Reiss Mailing List Signup” in the tab above.

I absolutely love your writing and so happy Fiona’s final book is done. Your books defiantly need to be on TV. Have you seen the crazy on Netflix? Your books need a place next to all that great new stuff! Not sure of the need for labels or such as I think it’s a sort of censorship but hey what ever it takes to get it to the masses and earn a dollar for yourself. Keep up the fantastic work. Looking forward to the next great series.

If I like an author , I can forgive most any problem . It sounds to me like this is not your fault . So I’m not going to worry about . I went to Amazon an purchased Forbidden . I just want to know if all three books are included . Or is Forbidden a stand alone . I really don’t care because I had already purchased the first two books anyway . Just put me on the mailing list and know I love your writing . I just want to know what happened to Fiona .

I was just about to cancel my Kindle Unlimited subscription, but now I’m so very glad I didn’t get around to it. You’re worth it. THANK YOU, Christine, for finishing Fiona’s story. Will there be more from the Drazen clan? There are a number of sisters remaining….

I just finished reading and reviewing Forbidden. I have to move on and read and review another book and it’s hard because writing that was great before becomes mediocre and what was average before becomes downright shitty. I don’t care about any of these distribution issues because if your writing was only available once a year at the equator, I’d get some sunblock and a plane ticket and go get it.

I love that you are you! Don’t ever change you don’t go with the flow you go with what you need to what’s best for you & yours, your not afraid to say it either! Thank you! Im clicking that sign up as soon as im done writing this. Xxx

Hey Lady,
I want to say I just LOVE your books, and the kinkier the better, not to mention loving the kinky covers, I may have the books on my tablet but I see covers too. I’m reading about Jonathon and Monica now, bought both bundles. It is hard to put these down, which should tell everyone it’s a good read, must buy. What does Forbidden have to do with Jonathon, I see Fiona has the Drazen name, was there a book about Fiona before Forbidden?
In closing I’d just like to say I would like to see you do a hardcore BDSM novel.
Bella